Revenant (16 page)

“And that Rupe wants Sage because he’s the first successful new werewolf he’s created,” Tallah says.

That shuts us all up. I listen to the breeze, the call of sea birds through the open door and try to figure out what to do next. “Can you tell me where the pack was supposed to hold territory?”

Anna nods quickly. “Of course,” she says. “But there’s more.”

Tallah grimaces. “We don’t know if this is connected,” she says, as if it’s an old argument.

“With all we’ve discovered and posited,” Anna says, “it makes sense, Tal.”

Tallah nods. “Go ahead.”

I lean in, Sage at my side, as Anna speaks.

“Just prior to the werewolf pack appearing,” she says, “there was a string of missing person reports. Mostly from the street community, but more widespread than anything Los Angeles has ever seen.”

“You think they might have been test subjects?” I shudder at Sage’s casual question.

“Possibly,” Anna says. “And then, an entire biker gang disappeared. It was huge news, because the leader was well-known and feared in the community.”

“Do you have a photo?” If it’s who I hope it is, we have proof. She holds out her hands, projecting a holographic image of a newspaper front page. The LA Times shows me the grinning, arrogant face of Cicero Caine.

Sage speaks up before I can. “That’s him.” He’s paled, hand going to his shoulder on reflex.

“So, now we know,” Tallah says. “You have proof he was human.”

He changed his name, took his whole gang with him, turned to werewolf revenants.

“We have to get this information to my grandfather.” Oleksander wants proof. Now he has it. That part of my task is done. I still have a cure to find—if there is one—but at least my grandfather will be able to move against Caine and his pack.

Tallah turns to Anna who closes her hands, shutting off the hologram. “I’ll make sure Oleksander has this information immediately,” she says. “And with pleasure.”

***

Tallah has just finished speaking when the air beside me ripples, turns black. I leap to my feet, but not out of fear. The moment Piers strides through, I throw myself into his arms and hug him to me.

“You idiot,” I whisper in his ear before leaning back and hitting him hard in the shoulder. He rolls with the punch, letting out a squeak of protest while I hug him again. “What are you doing here?”

Piers grins at me when I finally let him go. “Figured I’m in enough trouble already, a little more won’t make much difference.” He raises his gray eyes to wink at Tallah and Anna. “Ladies.” His tall body bends in a half bow. They both wave a little while he turns to Sage. His eyes tighten around the corners, but his ever-present grin remains. “Wolf boy.”

Sage snarls, but when I turn, I see the startled look on his face. His wolf reacts before he can stop it. “Piers,” Sage says, far more civil than his previous greeting.

Wait, Piers is here. We’ve been down this road before, and with dangerous results. “Your mother will track you here.” I spin back on him, panic returning. “You have to go.” I don’t want him to leave. Having people around who care, who understand, it feels like being part of a pack again. But if his presence will bring Enforcers, I have to send him away.

“She won’t,” he says, grim bitterness flaring a moment before it disappears behind his enigmatic smile. “In fact, I’ve seen to it my mother will never again be able to use me against anyone. Ever.”

I stare in shock. “What are you talking about?” He’s Steam Union. She’s his leader. There’s no alternative to doing her ultimate bidding. Unless.

Oh, Piers.

“You see,” he says, booping me on the nose with one thin finger, “I’ve made a life decision, a change of fate, if you will.” His grand delivery of his lines could come from a well-practiced play. A tragedy, though he tries for comedy. “After a brief, yet enlightening, conversation with dear Mummy, I’ve chosen to cut myself off from the Steam Union and sever my association once and for all.”

“You what?” Another punch finds his shoulder, this one without power behind it, my strength stolen by my shock. “You’re insane.” The Steam Union is his life.

“No,” he says, “disillusioned and unwilling to follow a stubborn leader who can’t see past her fears and self-centered need to control everything.” He tosses his white-blond hair, the ponytail bouncing over his shoulder. “About time I left,” he adds with an arrogant sniff. “I’ve long railed against the narrow-minded ways of the Steam Union. Just ask Syd.” He winks at me, though there is pain far behind his eyes. This has cost him far more than he’s willing to admit. “Thanks to my mother’s unwillingness to listen to reason yet again, I could follow no other course of action but to release myself from her influence.”

“I bet that made her happy.” Eva Southway isn’t the kind of woman you cross without consequences.

He shrugs. “Her satisfaction with the way things have turned out is not my concern.” He stretches, draws a big breath of air he lets out in a happy gust, still playing his part. “So this is what freedom feels like. Remarkable. Should have tried it years ago.” He nudges me. “Highly recommend it.”

Tallah’s shock slips into sad humor. “Piers,” she says. “What will you do?”

His shoulders hunch before he sighs, dropping the act. “Look, I know I’m making light of my choice. But it really was inevitable. I can’t live like that anymore. My mother is a tyrant, and if being a part of the Steam Union means being inflexible and turning in my friends, I won’t do it.” He waggles his eyebrows at the Hensley leader. “Besides, I have a coven leader or two who might be willing to take me in if I make my case.” The faintest hint of pleading is in his voice, though I doubt Tallah hears it. My ears are just sensitive, especially to Piers.

Tallah nods, smiling for real this time. “We would be honored to have you.”

Piers sweeps into another bow. “Delightful. Now, let’s talk compensation.” His eyes narrow, hands rubbing together, making Tallah laugh.

I hug him again, shattering his little show. “You did this for me.” No matter how hard I try, I keep dragging the people I care about into trouble over a choice I made. Piers’s defection is my fault, no matter what he says.

He shakes his head, laughing with the bitterness returned. “Don’t flatter yourself, princess,” he says, tone softer and kinder than his words. “I did this for purely selfish reasons.” He steps away from me, winking as his old charm returns. “Now, tell me we have a plan. I’m all in, regardless. The madder the better, in my opinion.”

Anna pours him a cup of coffee while Tallah tells him what we’ve deduced. I sit with Sage, holding his hand, listening and processing. Piers might be trying to protect me from guilt, but part of his choice is my fault. And I’ll never forget his sacrifice.

“Track down the creator, check.” Piers nods. “And track the Steam Union pocket, check. Perhaps find ourselves some Brotherhood traitors and wring information from them. Most excellent. Timeline?”

I glance at Sage. “A day,” I say. “At the most.”

Sage meets my eyes, his calm despite what has to be a frustrating conversation going on around him. “I feel fine, you know,” he says. “Since San Antonio, when the antibiotics kicked in.”

I don’t say anything, unable to speak.

Sage turns to smile at the others. “Whatever’s coming,” he says, “I’m not afraid. I think Tallah is right. Whoever made me, they figured it out.” He flexes his shoulder. “It’s weird and everything, but I’ve never felt stronger. Or more myself.” He squeezes my hand as if to reassure me. Like he should be thinking about me at all, considering. “It’s going to be okay, Charlie. I can feel it.”

I wish I shared his optimism. Instead, I wrap myself in the pride and duty of my people to keep from crying and close myself off from him. He must feel it, because he releases my hand and looks down, falling silent again.

Doesn’t he know we can’t afford to think in terms of hope right now? We have too much yet to come to fall into that trap. I know Syd would chide me for my negativity. She thrives on hope to carry her through conflict after conflict. But I was raised differently.

Piers meets my eyes “I think we’re all aware you’re not a real revenant,” he says. Tallah nods, Anna’s face creased in a sad but supportive smile. “While I adore Charlotte and would do anything for her, you’re another matter.” Sage’s head snaps up, frown tight and dark. “If I thought for one second you were about to turn into a slavering psychopath, I’d kill you myself and her wants be damned.” I’m scowling now, too.

“I wouldn’t risk my coven,” Tallah says with a gentle smile, “if I thought otherwise myself.” She folds her napkin between her fingers. “I won’t lie to you, Sage. This is a huge risk. But I believe you are evolving into something important.” Her dark eyes glisten with blue magic a moment. “I’ve felt your spirit. There is nothing in you that tells me you are a risk. To the contrary.” She gestures to me. “You feel more a werewolf than Charlotte does, whatever that means.”

I gape at her while Piers snorts.

“Same here,” he says, gray eyes sparkling. “Seriously, Charlotte. You thought I’d take your side and throw away everything if I didn’t think he was valuable?”

I shake my head. “You could have told me sooner.” Is it true? Have I been watching for the darkness for so long I missed the light in Sage? I feel for him, but he’s the same. Isn't he?

Sage visibly releases his anger. “Thank you,” he says to Tallah, ignoring Piers. “Your help means a lot to me.”

Tallah pats his hand. “We’ll figure this out,” she says. “No matter what that means.” She winks at me. “And maybe change some laws along the way to include a new evolution of werewolf.”

Piers rolls his eyes as I ponder the possibility. Is Sage what we as a nation are meant to become? If so, how can I prove it?

“Anything else?” The blond sorcerer crosses his arms over his chest as though bored with our conversation.

No one speaks further. The tasks ahead are enough.

“All right,” Piers climbs to his feet, his discarded longcoat left on the back of the chair as he rolls up the sleeves of his button-up, exposing pale, wiry arms. “Leave the Steam Union to me. I’ve played Mr. Nice Piers all along, let them have their cat and mouse moments. Whatever it is they fear, I’ll give them something to be afraid of.” He grins at me, clearly enjoying himself. “I’ve been waiting for this moment, you have no idea. Didn’t have permission before. Coven Leader?” He turns to her, expectant.

Tallah smiles. “Permission granted. Though consider yourself a free agent with ties to the family, Piers. I’m not your mother.”

“My dear lady,” he says. “You certainly aren’t, being a witch of action.” Now I don’t feel so bad. He truly seems enthusiastic about the whole thing. Perhaps this is a gift, the push he needed to shed his domineering mother and her antiquated ways. I know the feeling. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. It’s time to start throwing my weight around and see what shakes loose.”

“Can I ask a question?” Sage’s hand tightens on mine, warm to the point of uncomfortable, though I refuse to let go. “Does this mean I’m going to be okay?”

We all stare at him while he looks around, trying to gauge an answer from our faces.

“Caine and his people,” Sage says. “They are normal. Well,” he laughs, “normal-ish. I have a feeling they were pretty badass and a little nuts before they were turned into werewolves.”

I have to agree with him there. “So you’re wondering if you’ll turn out like them?” I sniff him, relieved there’s still no sign of revenant taint and that the scent of the secondary infection is long faded. My wolf chuffs over the idea he could be much more than I ever considered. “I don’t know, Sage. None of us do. But it makes sense that if you are the next incarnation, that if Rupe figured out what Belaisle missed, it’s the reason he wants you back.”

“So he can copy what he did with you,” Tallah says, voice soft. “Study you to see what worked and why.”

I nod. “Which means it’s possible you will be okay.” Can I really bring myself to believe that?

Sage sighs, smiles a little. “But it’s also possible I could devolve into a slavering monster at a moment’s notice.”

I doubt that very much after everything Tallah and Piers have said. There’s something more at work here, something I’m not seeing, maybe not willing to see. If Sage is our next evolution, he still feels incomplete, like his wolf has other plans.

Piers breaks the silence by slapping Sage firmly on the shoulder. Sage winces, reaching for it while I glare at my sorcerer friend.

“Fear not,” Piers says in his cheery British voice, “if you do, we’ll make sure you have a grand exit.”

“I’d rather find a cure.” I glare at Piers who winks.

Sage turns to look at me. “I already told you,” he says. “If it comes down to it, I want to be a werewolf.”

Tallah clears her throat, Anna rising quickly, taking coffee cups away. They sense the sudden intimacy, though Piers hovers, watching, hurt in his eyes while his lips continue to smile.

“You can’t,” I say. Why doesn’t he understand? I should have had this conversation with him long ago, but the timing was always terrible and hope seemed the brighter choice. Now I see my folly. He’s really deluding himself. “They’ll kill you.” My people. Whether he’s okay or not.

“The laws can change,” Sage says. “We’ll make them change. But I’m going to be a werewolf, Charlotte. I’m staying with you.”

***

I rise from the table, pulling Sage aside, out the door and onto the deck for a private talk, or as private as we’re going to get. Piers stays behind, though from the belligerent frown he gives me as I glance back, he would rather follow and maybe do something permanent to make Sage go away forever.

This independent streak of his seems to have triggered more than I expected.

Sage is just as stiff as my sorcerer friend, anger in his face, his stance, the scent of him as his wolf argues without speaking.

“I thought you understood,” I say, keeping my voice low. “But now I know I’ve failed to explain clearly. That’s my fault.” My chest heaves in a sigh, heart hurting as I think of him and his family, waiting for him to visit at Christmas, loving their son, their brother, just the way he is. My own selfish need wishes Sage and I could be together, but I have to put him first. Which means encouraging him to return to human, if possible. “I let you hold your hope, Sage, knowing it kept you going. But you have to listen to me now. You have to believe me.” I shake my black bob, not wanting to be angry, but not knowing how else to feel. Not angry with him but at the laws and rules and old fools that will keep us apart. “No matter what happens here, Sage, the pack will never accept you. Live and be a werewolf or die as a monster, you’re a revenant, not born to our people. And that is a truth no one can change.” Unless Rupe and Belaisle have altered the rules with their meddling. What does that mean for the werenation?